“For them to finish in the top four this season is not going got be easy, and that's why selling Sanchez to Manchester United would make no sense to me at all,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.

“Sell him to City. The truth is that Arsenal and Manchester City aren't rivals, but Arsenal are big rivals with United because they are both fighting for those top four spots.

“Wenger has put so much emphasis on finishing in the top four over the years, so why would he now go and strengthen one of his main rivals?”

Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho was asked about whether United will sign Sanchez this month and he said: “If somebody speaks of one of my players to tell we are interested or we are not interested, I wouldn’t be very, very happy.

“Sanchez is an Arsenal player, I don’t know but probably this weekend he is going to defend Arsenal colours so I don’t think it’s correct to say things about Alexis Sanchez.

“At the general level what I can say is myself and the Manchester United board, the owners, we don’t believe a lot in the January market, we don’t believe in signing a player just to sign a player, just to do something, we don’t believe in that.”

Sanchez, who was dropped to the bench for the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Chelsea earlier this week, could start against Bournemouth on Sunday (1.30pm).